ISHS Acta Horticulturae 964: International Symposium on Medicinal and Aromatic Plants IMAPS2010 and History of Mayan Ethnopharmacology IMAPS2011
EFFECT OF PLANT GROWTH-PROMOTING RHIZOBACTERIA AND NITROGEN FERTILIZER ON YIELD AND ESSENTIAL OIL OF GERMAN CHAMOMILE (MATRICARIA CHAMOMILLA L.) |
| Authors: | S. Dastborhan, S. Zehtab-Salmasi, S. Nasrollahzadeh, A.R. Tavassoli |
| Keywords: | Azospirillum lipoferum, Azotobacter chrocooccum, essential oil, German chamomile, nitrogen fertilizer, PGPR, yield |
| DOI: | 10.17660/ActaHortic.2012.964.15 |
| Abstract:
German chamomile is one of the most important medicinal plants in the world, which is used in pharmaceutical, food, perfumery and cosmetic industries. It has been known that application of biofertilizers such as plant growth promoting rhizobacteria positively influence growth and yield of several crops including medicinal plants. To investigate the effects of biofertilizer and nitrogen fertilizer on the yield and essential oil of chamomile, a factorial experiment was carried out on the basis of Randomized Complete Block Design with 16 treatments in 3 replications during 2008 growing season. Treatments were: inoculation with PGPR in 4 levels (B0: no-inoculation, B1: inoculation with Azotobacter chrocooccum, B2: inoculation with Azospirillum lipoferum and B3: inoculation with combination of Azotobacter and Azospirillum) and 4 levels of nitrogen fertilizer (N0:0, N1:50, N2:100 and N3:150 kg N ha-1). Flowers of chamomile were harvested in five stages (each 10 days) and dried at suitable conditions. Results showed that nitrogen fertilizer significantly (P<0.01) increased yield of dry flower (31.5-38.6%) and yield of essential oil (29.2-31.6%) in comparison with the control. The highest yield of dry flower (4.295 g plant-1 or 1889.9 kg ha-1) and essential oil yield (37.13 mg plant-1 or 16.34 kg ha-1) were obtained with application of 150 and 100 kg N ha-1, respectively. According to the results of this investigation, there was a significant response to interaction of inoculation with PGPR and nitrogen fertilizer (P<0.01) on average percent of essential oil. The highest average percent of essential oil were obtained from B1N0: Azotobacter + 0 kg N ha-1 (0.9991%), B0N3: no-inoculation + 150 kg N ha-1 (0.9720%) and B2N3: Azospirillum + 150 kg N ha-1 (0.9644%) treatments. The yield of dry flower and essential oil with application of 50, 100 and 150 kg N ha-1 did not show any significantly difference, therefore use of 50 kg N ha-1, in addition to having optimum yield and reduction in production costs, can also reduce environmental pollution. The use of bacteria with low amounts of nitrogen fertilizer increased the performance of bacteria. | |
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